Common Attributes of Peter Carey's Short Stories

An analysis of several of the stories in The Collected Stories of Peter Carey reveals numerous common attributes, leading to the aspects of entrapment and isolation appearing as common aspects of the stories. These come across in both the physical and mental form. Often the entire experience of entrapment and isolation is the result of the interaction of both forms. The quality of entrapment seen throughout Crabs, Peeling and A Fat Man in History relies on lies. In Crabs, the main character and his girlfriend become “stranded” at the drive in after their car parts have been stolen and the manager of the drive in tells them there is no way that they can leave, in effect lying to them. The same form of lying is adopted by Florence Nightingale in A Fat Man in History, as she makes them believe that they really can’t do anything to escape their place as the hated fat people in society except rebel against the government, suggesting all sorts of odd methods to do so such as ‘eating the statue’. The lying is slightly different in Peeling. The narrator has fallen into a trap of self-deception, unwilling to accept the harsh truth, preferring to take ‘slow pleasure’ in ‘superficial things’. This allows him a more pleasant state of mind, but at the same time entraps him in a world of lies which will undoubtedly cause some distress once he is forced to see the truth. For entrapment to be further entwined in these three Peter Carey stories, the use of blind acceptance is also employed. This means the characters need to believe that they are physically trapped. Those in Crabs are told they can’t get out of the drive in but aren’t physically trapped at first, yet they don’t try to rebel against the government by walking out of the drive in or attempting to escape in any way unless they have a functioning car. At some point they do become physically trapped as the government fence them in. The gang in A Fat Man in History just accept that...

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Family is a strong theme in Joyce&#8217;s writings for in Araby, the young teen finds himself obeying his uncle and asking his permission to go to the festival showing his sense of respect and need for family. In Eveline the family theme can be seen when Eveline stays and takes over the role of head of the household as a teen when her mother dies, because she feels it is her duty and she owed it to her mother. The family theme that I identified can be interpreted many different ways from the context that it was written, but these two shortstories were appropriate for this theme.
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...﻿Antwan Mansour
S_113
Announcer: “ C_Copy2 and C_Copy 7 to super stage, report now.”
“ What do you think all of this is about S_112 ?”
“ I have no clue, they might have some sickness or might be polluted.”
“Yea”, every time I talk to her I feel something in me that keeps me attracted to her, a bond maybe.
Polluted, that word struck my head, what can it be? Thinking as I was strolling through the corridor until I approached a steel door called stage 3 with a sign saying “no entrance” hanging on. Thoughtlessly I sneak inside and start wandering with anxiety looking at all of these tubes, hearing some murmuring here and there. A hand pulls me to the side behind a set of tubes.
“shhh, don’t say a single word” this old man puts his hand on my mouth. He takes me into this small chamber and gives me a coke. I look bewilderedly at this can of drink; I never saw such a thing in the conservatory inside. I reject it, but he stops me and says, “ Its not polluted don’t worry”. “ I don’t think you know much about the real world do you?”
I answer still with a bit of confusion, “ what do you mean? Real world? “
“ I see now, let me tell you a few things about who you are and why you are here, first you’re not a real human being but rather a copy of a guy in the world, you’re only a doll that is used to keep these extra artificial organs in good condition so later on when an organ in the original person fails, a part of you is replacing that so in that way people...

...time comes, that she will be the first to go because she is weak and he is strong.
Summary of “Little Red Riding Hood”
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Summary of “The Tell-Tale Heart”
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...﻿English Sac – ShortStories Analytical
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The theme love is clearly highlighted in “The Happy Prince and ‘The Gift of Magi’. The story ‘Happy Prince ’, Wilde explores the theme of love by using the example between the Prince and the swallow falling in love. This is evident when the Prince says “you must kiss me on the lips, for I love you.” Wilde’s explores the importance of love using two different creations God has made. Wilde’s also proves that love in the story exist in many different ways. Love is shown in the Happy Prince by caring for his people. He sees that his people are in need so he sends his one and only swallow to look over his town and give away all the treasure that the Happy Prince has. Happy Prince is blind and his body parts are missing but still cries for his people in the town hoping that they will be safe. Wilde shows that love is important part of life and that caring for each other is the main key. O.Henry also explores the theme of love in ‘The Gift of Magi’. The Gift of Magi is a strong topic...

...In the two shortstories, "The Free Radio" and "Everything Rises Must
Converge," the main characters of each story have to make many important
decisions/choices. The choices that are made change how other characters see the main
character as well as how they react to them.
In the shortstory, "The Free Radio," by Salman Rushdie, Ram has many choices
to make throughout the story. Ram who could have had anything in the world he wanted
made many poor choices. Ram was the cutest guy in the town; he had everything going
for him. Then he met the widow and her five children, and he also started hanging with
the youth armbands, these people lead to the downfall of Ram. The radio represented a
way for Ram to escape reality and when Ram didn't get it he had to deal with all the
negative choices he made. This is what hurt Ram because he had made so many negative
choices in throughout the story. The theme of this story is to be happy in whatever you do
and if your not you can always move to a new town and start over like Ram did.
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...﻿Fantasy Story:
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“Let’s hurry!” yelled Belle “We don’t have much time!”
“Ok, ok, I’m coming!” murmured Sunny groggily. It was 3 in the morning after all!
The two girls were heading to the Tulip Meadow. It all had started when they were having a sleepover at Sunny’s house. Then Belle had a dream that she had to go the meadow. She decided to drag Sunny along. Now they were on their way.
“Did I have to come…I’m tired” groaned Sunny. Belle was tired too, but decided not to admit it and yell at Sunny.
“Stop whining and move it!” Belle yelled.
Sunny yelled at her back. “Well it’s kind of hard to sprint when you’re half asleep!” Belle decided to stay quiet after that statement.
When the two girls had reached the meadow, they were in awe.
“Whoa…” Belle muttered. The meadow was alive in the middle of the night. It was glittery and it glowed like florescent lights in neon colors. It seemed so bright. Then all of a sudden a fairy, yes a fairy, flew up to the girls.
“Y-you’re a fairy?!” questioned Sunny in confusion, surprise, and astonishment. “You’re s-so”
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...A curious child asked his mother: “Mommy, why are some of your hairs turning grey?”
The mother tried to use this occasion to teach her child: “It is because of you, dear. Every bad action of yours will turn one of my hairs grey!”
The child replied innocently: “Now I know why grandmother has only grey hairs on her head.”
:mrgreen:
Wrong email address:
A couple going on vacation but his wife was on a business trip so he went to the destination first and his wife would meet him the next day.
When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick email.
Unfortunately, when typing her address, he mistyped a letter and his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher’s wife whose husband had passed away only the day before.
When the grieving widow checked her email, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor in a dead faint.
At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:
Dearest Wife,
Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow.
P.S. Sure is hot down here.
:mrgreen:
Will’s experience at the airport:
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